Futures Slide; Banks Fall Hard on JPM, Barclays News

By Avi Salzman

Stock futures fell early on Thursday ahead of a busy day full of data releases, a European summit, and a highly anticipated Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act. The data releases were so far mostly uneventful: The government maintained its first quarter GDP growth estimate at 1.9%, as analysts had expected, and jobless claims of 386,000 were about the same as the prior week.

Dow futures fell 70 points; S&P 500 futures fell 6.3 points.

The big news this morning is in the banking sector. The New York Times is reporting that JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) trading loss in London may rise as high as $9 billion, according to the bank’s own internal estimates. The internal estimates may not jibe with actual trading losses — the bank has already unwound more than half of the trade and may be completely out by the end of the year, The Times reported. That’s presumably ahead of schedule. JPM fell 2.9% in pre-market trading. Other U.S. bank stocks also fell, with Citigroup (C) down 2.6%.

Barclays (BCS) shares are getting pummeled after the bank settled claims it had manipulated interbank lending rates (Libor and Euribor). Its U.S. shares fell more than 11% in pre-market trading. Deutsche Bank (DB), the target of a similar probe, is down 6%.

Family Dollar (FDO) fell 7% after reporting disappointing earnings and margin pressure. Other dollar stores were also falling on the news.

News Corp. (NWSA) announced plans to split into two companies; shares fell 0.7% after rising the previous two days.

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Earnings reports, corporate strategies and analyst insights are all part of what moves stocks, and they’re all covered by the Stocks to Watch blog. We also look at macro issues, investor sentiments and hidden trends that are affecting the market. Stocks to Watch gives you the full picture of the U.S. stock markets, all day long.

The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.